This man Mohler is only preaching what Paul preached and I presume no one on this thread would have trouble with it:
“... and such were some of you”.
Mohler is only trying to point out the terrible failure of our modern church in regards to homosexuality.
“PieterCasparzen” on this thread points out the verse about incest in a professed believer in 1 Corinthians, Chapter 5
But what this citation says is that Christians are
1. not to tolerate sin in a professed Christian
2. Not to even eat a meal with a liar, cheater, idolater, swindler or sexually immoral person who PROFESSES CHRIST
3. Paul goes on to say that we in the church are not to “Be removed from the world” . Thus, Paul addresses the problem of monasticism or the sin of false asceticism, removing oneself from the world and thinking you are more spiritual by isolation!
4. This citation makes it clear that we are not to judge the unsaved for their sin because THEY HAVE NO WAY TO OVERCOME THEIR SIN WITHOUT JESUS.
5. Paul makes it clear we have no right to judge the unsaved, God is their judge, BUT WE ARE TO JUDGE OTHER PEOPLE IN THE CHURCH or who PROFESS JESUS if they are sexually immoral.
This man Mohler is doing the work of the Holy Spirit, not being liberal or loose about sin.
Such were some of YOU until someone loved you enough to preach the Word of God to you and you accepted Jesus and repented of your sinful life and put the Old Man of Sin to death in your life.
Mohler is right. And so is Paul.
I wonder, how many men who use porn on a regular basis and go to church should be treated as Paul treated the man in incest in 1 Corinthians? We know the church is filled with porn addicts. This sin is as much of an abomination as being gay to God. And yet people are afraid of evangelizing or ministering to unsaved gays? Hypocrites. The church is for the sick.
Jesus says “I came not for the healthy (the righteous) but for the sick (the sinners) — did He not say this?
Jesus weeps. No wonder we in the church are being judged. Mohler is a man of God, and I say Lord bless this man's hands, keep him strong in You Oh Lord.
I’m unclear on what appears to be a contradiction in your post.
On the one hand you’re saying we are “not to tolerate sin in a professed Christian” and “Not to even eat a meal”, but later in your post you say that Mohler is right, that sodomites should be welcomed within the congregation.
Which is it, as one can’t include and welcome sodomy while not tolerating sodomy at the same time ?
1 Corinthians Chapter 5 is part of the Biblical basis for Church discipline. Church discipline, should, of course, lead to denying the Lord’s Table and eventual excommunication for unrepentant sinners. Excommunication is “turning them over to God” where we pray that they will be drawn back to God, be saved and find another congregation. Without this finality, Church discipline would not be efficacious as a chastisement of sin (remember, chastise is not a “bad” word, as we - like God - chastise those we love, since if we did not chastise a person when necessary, we certainly we not care much about them).
As Church discipline has been watered-down or eliminated from so many denominations, they have fallen into apostasy. Inviting sin inside our congregations “leaveneth the whole lump”, in the words of the Apostle Paul. And as the Lord wills, they will return to true Biblical practices.
Of course, many people today all over the world can’t stand the word judge, being “judgemental” is viewed as a despicable quality. This term is invariably followed with accusations or innuendos about being branded another very popular denegrating term - a hypocrite. I see three different common contexts - 1) a public figure’s sins become public, 2) a non-public figure, just a person, insists their sin is not a sin 3) a sin in general is discussed with no particular person being accused. In all these, you can’t deny the sin is a sin. Hypocrisy is when one calls out another person’s undeclared sin - a particular individual - publicly. Privately is the way to go in that case. But if a person declares they are sinning and they also declare that their sin is not a sin, they made it a public issue and forced others to accept or contradict them. If I tell someone that I lied about something - how could I then tell them they have no right to tell me I’m wrong because they must have committed sins in the past themselves !
Towards the end of your post you talk about congregation members who habitually commit sins other than sodomy, for example, those who habitually lust. Of course, any serious sin such as that would be in the same category as sodomy - Church discipline is required. Trouble is, everyone says, “how do we know who’s surfing porn on the web” ? Well, firstly, that’s where a Christian home needs to operate in a Biblical fashion. A husband and wife should be close enough on a daily basis to be confident that no such activity is occurring - do they have “secret” computers - or are they open with each other ? Secondly, will we ever know that every member of every family in a congregation is committing no sins ? No, of course not. And that is precisely where the traditional Reformed perspective - so often criticized - seems to be so accurate: we can not know for a fact that there is zero sin within a congregation.
As far as ministering to the unsaved, from the days of the early Church Christian doctrine has been to spread the Gospel, not withhold it. But spreading the Gospel to the unsaved is done outside the congregation. Those congregants who openly sin and refuse correction are to be put out from the congregation of believers, as the last verse of 1 Corinthians Chapter 5 directs:
“Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.”
There are a number of other Bible verses supporting this idea of excluding those who openly sin from the congregation; I pray that you will search for them so you can be firm in this knowledge.
Please remember also the verse which requires exclusion of the unrepentant sinner from the Lord’s Supper, lest he bring damnation upon himself:
1 Corinthians 11:
27 Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.
28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.
29 For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.